The tension in his chest grows as Essek looks at him. Verin doesn't want to believe what he's been told. But--he knows his brother. He knows Essek's ambitions. He'd only hoped...

Would things have been different if he'd refused Bazzoxan? He would have been accepted into the Aurora Guard in Rosohna, he had both the standing and the skill to guard the Bright Queen herself. If he'd found some reason to stay in Rosohna, if he'd been there, could he have kept Essek from completely disappearing into theory and ambition? Would he have been able to pull his brother back? He doesn't know, and that is the worst part.

Verin isn't the sort of person to ask what if, and now he finds that's all he can do. And he wants to go back. He wants to be the man who first plunged into the ocean here, unaware of anything beyond his brother's transfer to the middle of frozen nowhere.

Essek is looking at him, and Verin has been quiet for far too long. He lowers his gaze.

"Time has passed since I was last here. I think. Less here than in Wildemount, and I can't... reconcile it."

Maybe it would be better if he didn't try. Essek is here, now, and that is all that matters. Isn't it?